September 29, 2023 9:39 am

What’s Driving Shifts in Higher Ed Leadership? Social Pressures, Pandemic Exhaustion and Declining Enrollment | Opinion

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Amid leadership changes at six of 11 local higher education institutions, academia looks to spread its benefits beyond the campus boundaries.

Emma Folts

January 23, 2023

When Kathy Humphrey met with a nursing executive at UPMC last year, the Carlow University president asked what the health system needed. Was it more licensed practical nurses? More registered nurses? Her response, according to Humphrey, was: “I need it all.”

Carlow doesn’t have a program for licensed practical nurses. But because of the university’s conversations with UPMC and other members of the healthcare sector, Carlow is developing a program that will ideally launch this fall, Humphrey said. 

“That’s what I have to be, and Carlow has to be, constantly in pursuit of: What is the next great need that is connected to the work that we do every day?” she said.

Humphrey, who became Carlow’s president in July 2021, said she believes that connecting with other sectors to address community needs will help the university stay relevant. Since she took the helm, there have been plenty of new connections to make across local government, philanthropy and economic development — including with the new head of UPMC, Leslie Davis. 

Read the rest of this article on PublicSource, a nonprofit newsroom serving the Pittsburgh region, where it was originally published. Sign up for its free weekly newsletters here.